Sue Summers
The artwork of local artist Sue Summers will be on display through March at Lee University. The exhibit is located in the lobby of the Squires Recital Hall in the Humanities Center on Parker Avenue.
Ms. Summers has been painting with water and oil media for the past 40 years. Through study and observation making art has helped connect her to her natural surroundings. With the intention of becoming proficient in using photos as reference material for paintings, she attended all photography classes offered by Cleveland State in the late seventies. As a result of her interest she won Photo Technician of the year in 1979. From these classes she gained a proficiency in composing through a camera lens. In her studio she began using ideas from these exposures as starting inspiration, often taking an element from one shot and incorporating it into an entirely different setting.
Her love of the east Tennessee area draws her to many varied locations along rivers, lakes, mountains, and fields of flowers.
Ms. Summers has studied art at Cleveland State under the direction of Jere Chumley, Kathy Robinson and Jennie Kirkpatrick. Additionally she has studied with Cleveland artist Billie Nipper and nationally known watercolor artist and author Zoltan Szabo. She has taken workshops with Ilona Royce Smithson, Barbara Thelin Preston and nationally known artist Tony Couch. She was an original member of the Coker Creek artists group. Sue has taught watercolor classes at Cleveland State as well as group and private lessons. She has often exhibited in regional shows and is represented by the Museum at Five Points in Cleveland.